Thato Kokwana (26), a versatile artist who was born and raised in Morokweng, Vryburg in the North West province, pursued his profession in art despite career stereotypes in the village. Through his early days, Thato Kokwana discovered his talent in primary and continued doing art (drawings) throughout his school days in Morokweng. After matriculating in 2013 at Setswakgosing High School, Kokwana went to study Btech in Fine Arts at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT ) in 2016.
Along his artistic journey, he was featured in Kulcha Kwest (2017). He was working on pottery at the time, and Kulcha Kwest was looking for a Tswana person to take that elective. “The program exposed me to traditional ways of doing pottery since at varsity we use modern machinery, and it was a great experience because, traditionally the making of clay pots is quite spiritual and that aspect of totally new to me,” said Kokwana.
Kokwana also had a privilege to design the World Choir Games trophy, which was first in the African continent, held in Tshwane in 2018. He was in his 3rd year (Fine Arts) when he entered the competition within the glass department, between 3rd and 4th year students. “My design and interpretation of the brief was good enough to be produced for the winners to take home to their respective countries across the world,” he said.
With his wearable art of sneaker customising which he started in 2017 to rejuvenate old shoes and keep them relevant to the fashion or culture at the time because we can’t afford to buy new kicks every season. He customised sneakers at GIBS, 2019 (with Mork Ink), The Dubai World expo, 2021 and The UK Common Wealth Games, 2022 with Ayashisa Amateki, Courtesy of Department of Sports Arts and culture.
Within the walls of any school establishment, art is frequently only taught as a hobby, leaving any real discussion of job security to other sectors of society, such as jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math.
In 2020, Kokwana launched KGOTLELA CREATIVE, which was motivated by the difficulties he encountered in the course of his artistic journey and the need to motivate others to break the idea that creativity is just a hobby rather than a pro¬fitable career.
“I want my art to reach places that only the mind of the kid in me could reach. I also want to work with public and private sectors to bring change in communities that never thought there was a future in the industry,” he concluded.
